We did this for 'a few years' and I am sure that due to cross pollination of Patriotic organizations within local communities there were more than just National Sojourners, Bethesda Chapter 445 participating in the event.

           Somewhere in the process Stan Felsenberg was appointed the Americanism Chairman of National Sojourners. He started a National Sojourners conference at Freedoms Foundation. This may in part be due to the Horton Memorial Fund that stipulates money be used to assist sending students to Freedoms Foundation. In thinking about this, I believe this is probably the reason why National Sojourners got involved with their own weekend...thought, not fact.

           Stan awarded money to Chapters who were sending students to Freedoms Foundation. The majority of the money went to the North Carolina Chapters who, even back then, were leaders in supporting the event.

           Somewhere in the process I was appointed a member of the Americanism Committee, doing nothing more than coordinating the effort of Bethesda 445. We were supporting 4 local high schools, 2 in Prince George's County (Highpoint and Northwestern) and 2 in Montgomery County (Seneca Valley and Gaithersburg).

           Due to the problems encountered by Brother Felsenberg I was appointed to the newly created position Freedoms Foundation Coordinator during the year of Bud Aldredge. I went to my first Mid-winter and struck up a friendship with Andy Drenkhahn and Bill Rush. At the Americanism Committee meeting I declared that we would distribute the Scholarships from the Dick Horton Memorial Fund by allocating one scholarship to each Chapter participating, regardless of the number of students being sent.

           I am led to believe that prior to that the high numbers for any conference were around 35 - 40. That first year we had 56 and moved higher every year, several times toying with sending 10 students, but never quite making it.

           And that is the start of the story..........